


what you don’t know

by MiaBrown



Series: what are you after? some kind of disaster? [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Death from Old Age, Dementia, Gen, Low-key Sad, Mentions of Death, Old Age, Sad Ending, who put this realism into my fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiaBrown/pseuds/MiaBrown
Summary: Adrien was afraid to die.Not like he had much to live for. Maybe that was exactly why.Marinette wasn't afraid of death.For a while now she wasn't afraid of anything. Or maybe she just forgot to be.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: what are you after? some kind of disaster? [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056431
Comments: 18
Kudos: 35
Collections: October 2020 - Dark





	what you don’t know

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Khanofallorcs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs/pseuds/Khanofallorcs) for beta reading my angst yet again! <3

At the age of 86, Adrien was afraid to die. 

Not like he had much to live for. Maybe that was exactly why. 

At the age of 86, Marinette wasn't afraid of death. 

For a while now she wasn't afraid of anything. Or maybe she just forgot to be.

Adrien sat on the edge of his bed and looked out to the trees dressed in autumn colours in the sanatorium's garden. In the setting sun, the bars of the window cast a wide shadow on his face. 

Marinette squirmed restlessly in her armchair, casting side-glances at the clock.

"Ana, you didn’t forget to feed Tikki, did you? "

"No, Madam..." Ana smiled sorrowfully. It was easier for everyone like this. "It’s taken care of. Just sit back and watch the show!"

  
  


Adrien got up with shaky legs to drag himself out to the lobby. He ignored the man in purple who stared at him mockingly from every corner.    
He had devoted his whole life to that man, he didn’t want to acknowledge his existence anymore. Not like he was given a choice. 

Not like he wasn’t used to that. 

"Ana, are you sure there wasn't an alert?"

"What kind of alert, Madam?"

"I... don’t know.” Marinette stared at the TV, puzzled. They aired an advertisement where two ladybugs sat under a rather fashionable umbrella in the pouring rain. “An alert."

He knew he didn't deserve to be around people, he didn't deserve their kindness and attention after what his family did, but he couldn't help it. He had to speak to someone. Anyone. 

It was funny how  _ solitude  _ was the one slowly killing him. 

The solid pink light of the television illuminated the dark room. Marinette came to her senses in a panic. "Ana, you didn’t forget to feed Tikki, did you?"

"Of course not, Madam," the nurse sighed audibly.

"Oh, good, good," Marinette calmed down, settling back to the comfortable chair. 

Adrien sat down on the tumbledown couch and stared at the advertisement on the television. He briefly wondered if his old classmate was doing fine. Her company surely was, selling umbrellas that cost a fortune. 

It was funny how a simple picture of ladybugs in the rain could still make the corner of his mouth turn up the slightest bit. 

"You know, what do I regret the most?" Adrien sighed, asking no one in particular. 

"I just don't know where it’s coming from!" Ana heard from the other side of the line. She sat at the marble kitchen table with her phone on her ear.

“It’s nothing peculiar. That’s just how Alzheimer works,” she answered, shrugging.

"I know, but I don’t understand where she could be getting that from. She never even had a pet named Tikki."

"What, Mr. Agreste?" The kind voice of a social worker asked as she handed him six various pills.

"I really wanted to get to know her. Even if nothing else... I just wanted to know her name," he said resignedly. 

"Whom, Mr. Agreste?"

Silence followed, only to be filled with a single, flat word that once meant the world. "Ladybug."

The nurse giggled, shaking her head. "Don't worry about that, Mr. Agreste! No one did."

"Madam, you got an invitation. It's for a funeral next week. Your childhood friend, Adrien Agreste passed away."

Marinette's lusterless eyes shone with befuddlement as she took the cheap envelope. 

"Who?"


End file.
